are green fingers hereditary

[percy charlie]

i know it seems a daft question to pop in my brain this time of night, but i wonder whether the nature nuture debate applys to gardening. i always thourght my gardening interest was nutured as my grandad loved his gardening and grew lots of fruit and veg and staying most friday nights till saturday afternoon as a child, used to help him in the garden (eat lots of carrots and peas and pull the odd weed) but as a grandad didnt think it was hereditary. hes my mums dad and my mum isnt great at gardening, while in the car with my dad the other day my dad shocked me to the core, you see im 28 and in 28 years ive never seen my dad pull a weed, speak anything about gardening or mention hes ever done anything other than repair a lawn mower so mum can mo the lawn, also they have only had a lawn for the last 7 years it was a weed pit for my entire life before then, so imagine the look on my face when chatting about my allotment when dad said oh i used to grow, toms, potatoes, peas, beans other veg ect and i used to grow crisamthamums (cant spell that word sorry) and show them apparently he was a master at them. i was so shocked i rang my sister to confirm it wasnt a wind up shes 20 years older than me, and its true, but dad gave it up 8 years before meeting my mum so he hasnt done any for about 38 years, sis said she could never play ball in the garden as a child i could but then had to find it in the weed pit. so i now think green fingures are hereditary as it seems i get mine from both sides so at least mine are anyway. also dad may just turn into a little garden gold mine as my dads first wifes dad was a head gardener for some big hospital so dad got loads of pointers info and help that if he can remeber all these years on i can maybe use, ive told dad hes free to chip in with advice, hes not that abled bodied these days due to ill health at 71 but hopefully he can still feel useful. however i have no interest in flowers just fruit and veg,
what does anyone else think, are your green fingers herditary or been nutured through interest out of nowhere?

[kethry]

hmmm. as a child of gardeners, and a grandchild of gardeners, and a great grandchild of gardeners... LOL.. you'd think it'd be hereditary. And it may well be. My parents have always been gardeners, although they're now rediscovering the joy of growing yer own after they just retired. My maternal grandfather grew his own fruit and veg (including the most amazing raspberries and loganberries) for about 30 years at least, after he retired, and possibly before he retired too. my maternal grandmother was in charge of the flower side of the garden, and they had a beautiful large garden in a small village that was thrown open to the public a couple times a year to raise money for the local church. My paternal grandfather grew fuschias - i have a fuschia which is "descended" from his, via my aunt and my mother (cuttings of cuttings of cuttings.. lol), and my paternal grandmother still grows her own tomatoes every year in her green house even though she's in her mid 80s and not at all well. I'm told too that my maternal greatgrandparents were all gardeners too, my maternal grandmother's father was a blacksmith, and although his forge was at the bottom of the garden there was a big garden inbetween that was apparently beautiful.

Having said all that...

I can remember my own parents growing and gardeneing as a child. I was given a little plot but lost interest in it quickly. I can remember us visiting my maternal grandparents (they of the big garden) and them trooping out to "go round the garden" after midmorning coffee, and rolling my eyes at the ridiculousness of it when i was a sulky teenager. I hated gardening then, couldn't see the point of it all.

for me, i came to love it through growing yer own. I think its something you develop when you get older (I'm 37 now) and you become more aware of the cycles of the year, of life in general, and wanting to create something beautiful. Certainly lessons i had then, such as the peace and tranquility of a well kept garden, the taste of freshly picked fruit and veg (freshly picked peas.. NOM) were drummed into me as a child, quite without realising it, and i suppose that comes through as an adult, when it was ready to bloom in me (pun intended).

so: nurture or nature? hmm. i think, for me, both. but like so much of gardening, its not something that can be forced. if you want to encourage gardening - or indeed, anything else - in someone you have to plant the seed, then stand back and watch it grow slowly. even if it takes the best part of 30 years for it to bloom!!!

keth
xx

[Fat Bob]

My mother, much to her chagrin, used to take her sick plants to my old Nan's little council house where she revived and rejuvinated them without fail.

I'd agree that some have it and some don't.

I definitely don't. The kids call me Dr. Death.

[Snadger]

Non of my family are the least bit interested in gardening. I am unique! Heredity.......naaaaaaaaaah!

[Marthaclematis]

Everything is hereditary. They've actually found the gene for adultery. And when i told my hairdresser that my friend's partner was a serial adulterer even though she knew and he knew that he loved her very much - and his mother was too (apparantly she'd been having an affair with the insurance man for 15 years) my hairdresser said she too knew someone who said they would never ever cheat on their partner like their father had, but three years into a relationship, did. My dh gets his cooking skills from his grandad, his mother can't cook for toffee.

[TonyF]

Non of my family are the least bit interested in gardening. I am unique! Heredity.......naaaaaaaaaah!

What Snadger said! My family are the biggest lot of non-gardeners in creation tho J's family are all, by and large, good gardeners, not sure about hereditary, more interesting I think.

[jondanie]

Not sure about the hereditary bit but I remember back in my college days, a lecturer telling us that some scientists reckoned that "green fingered" gardeners excreted more of a certain plant hormone (i think it was gibberillin) from their finger tips! An interesting concept! Maybe there's some truth to it, I don't know but some people just seem to have an uncanny way with plants.

[coreopsis]

I'm more black-fingered gardener than the green one...
Heredity?I can repeat after Snadger:P

[Snadger]

Not sure about the hereditary bit but I remember back in my college days, a lecturer telling us that some scientists reckoned that "green fingered" gardeners excreted more of a certain plant hormone (i think it was gibberillin) from their finger tips! An interesting concept! Maybe there's some truth to it, I don't know but some people just seem to have an uncanny way with plants.

I MUST be green fingered then cos I talk quite a bit of gibberillin!